Mehmet Bal, father of 10, who came to İstanbul to visit his son in prison is missing for 18 days. No one saw him after he visited some relatives on January 24. Bal's brother Mehmet Şirin Bal who stated that they keep looking for his brother, said neither the police, nor the prosecutor's office is offering any kind of help to find their brother. Bal who stated that the police keeps telling them to wait and that they will call them, said the prosecutor they applied the other week mocked them and did not take them seriously.

 

'MY BROTHER IS NOT A SET OF KEYS, HOW CAN A PERSON GOES MISSING LIKE THAT?'

 

Stating that his brother did not have any enemies and knew İstanbul well, said: "How can a person who knows the city go missing? How can a person go missing, is he a set of keys? State can find him in two hours if they wanted to. We don't know what happened to my brother. We don't know if the state has him. We want him found whereever he is."

 

Bal's son, Nihat Bal, stating that they consider every possibility, said: "If the state has my father, why aren't they releasing him yet? What business they can have with my father? He might be held by the state of might have fallen somewhere. We can conduct a search. We went to the police, we went to the prosecutor, we went to the missing persons department but they are not giving us any information due to the ongoing investigation. So we are trying to find him through our acquintances. We couldn't find anything. He can only be found through technical surveillence, wire tapping, video surveillence. There is not one single street in İstanbul that is not being watched by cameras. But somehow, they can't find him."

 

 

'THE PROSECUTOR QUESTIONED ME ABOUT MY BROTHERS'

 

Bal, telling about his meeting with the prosecutor, said: "We had a meeting with the prosecutor. The prosecutor had a careless attitude. He asked a few questions, said that he is continuing the research. He asked questions about my family, my father and my siblings. He asked me if my father could have joined the PKK when I told him two of my brothers had joined PKK before. I told him how and why would he joined the PKK in his old age and why would he come to İstanbul if he had that intention. He insisted on this question, he asked about my feelings about my two brothers, and what my father thinked about it. His attitude did not seem constructive to me."

 

Bal, stating that an investigation was carried out on the subject, but they did not know how the investigation was going, said: "They did not give us any information and did not do all that they can do to find him. Why can't the state find Mehmet Bal? His son is not allowed to enter the police station in Gayrettepe, they tell us they will not allow us to enter too when we call them on the phone to get information. Why?"

 

 

MA / Erdoğan Alayumat